“What are you talking about, Pinkie?” Pinkamena asked. “We already have superpowers.”

After the Saints sealed off the flood of clones into the simulation as a ploy by Zinyak to stop the Saints from further defiling his once-clean simulation, Moondancer had constructed the necessary cypher needed to infiltrate the prison holding Maud, Limestone and Marble.

It was what was said after that baffled Pinkamena as Pinkie was suggesting that they had a mission that needed to be done that directly involved the two of them.

Pinkie giggled, “No silly, this isn’t about us getting superpowers, it’s about a major event in the story. Plus we get our own power specialization like the others have.”

“Alright, so what do we need to do?”

“We need the help of our friends.”

“Why do we need them?”

“Because friendship is magic.”

Pinkamena realized that she was getting nowhere talking to her sister who she suspected was being cryptic on purpose. She said nothing else as everyone returned to the ship.

There wasn’t much left to be done to the simulation before the Saints fully took control of the virtual city. Among the Saints who had tasks remaining, only Asha and Ben were left. After the incident with the clones, Ben wrote up his lists of tasks to be done that, combined with Asha’s task lists, would complete the virtual city takeover.

Ben needed some legwork done so he would have some material for his sci-fi follow-up to ‘Regicide’. Vinyl had finished one of the objectives earlier so she had to explain in words how it felt to hack a store. The DJ was inept at literature but Ben was able to get the gist of what she was trying to explain.

Asha had requested that Octavia be the one to complete her lists as she wanted to see if the former agent’s training was comparable to the standards of MI6.

Pinkamena decided to handle Ben’s list since the way she does things is seen as the best material for the writer. Ben also asked Pinkamena, or rather Pinkie, how it felt to hack stores. Pinkie stated that the hackings were like a fun little game that she could play while being able to avoid having to kill people.

Pinkamena and Octavia headed into the simulation to handle the next set of tasks that were given to each of them. Pinkamena’s first task was shutting down the final Hotspot in the simulation while Octavia headed to Burns Hill to fight off waves of attackers as another virus was uploaded.

For Octavia, dealing with groups of enemies was something that she was accustomed to during her career as an agent. She was sometimes tasked with guarding VIPs such as Daring Do from a distance. The adventurer never knew that she had a guardian angel those days.

Her next task involved using her horn to demolish a neighborhood. She was still not used to having a horn given that she was an Earth Pony, but the horn came with her powers so she figured that she might as well get some use from it.

Octavia was next tasked with delivering a coded vehicle to a location. She had never driven a car before so this task proved to be a slight challenge to the former agent but she managed to get the hang of the controls quickly and completed the task.

Asha had given Octavia a second viral injection point to protect during this session and the task was about the same as the first.

The last task was another Zin patrol on Arapice Island. Octavia tried out her new Buff ability and used it with her Stomp. The combination slowed the time for other Zin while speeding up her own. The two abilities together made it appear like her enemies were helplessly frozen in time and she would capitalize on that.

With that done, Octavia returned to the ship.

The last Hotspot was heavily defended as it should have been. However, the Zin were still unprepared for a fast-moving psychotic mare wielding a hobby horse that could level structures and send them flying. Many Zin were smashed by the weapon before the madmare shut down the last maintenance device.

Pinkamena’s Vorpal Blade, combined with her Stomp, left an entire Zin patrol in tiny pieces before they hit the ground. The Warden that showed up afterward was merely another victim of the Butcher.

With the last store already hacked, Pinkamena moved on to her final task for the session which was another virus injection. The madmare had to wonder how many viruses in the system would be enough for the Saints hackers.

Knowing that she wouldn’t get the answer by just standing among the remains of her enemies, Pinkamena returned to the ship to claim her reward.

Ben King delivered when he found a variant of the Buff ability that would allow her to freeze nearby enemies.

All of the preparations had been made. The time had come for the Equestrians to rescue the Pie sisters from their torment at the hands of Zinyak. The plan was simple, once inside the simulation, the Saint Six would head for The Broken Shillelagh and Moondancer would use the cypher to open the way into the prison simulation.

The other Saints offered to help with their operation but Pinkamena only accepted Matt’s and Kinzie’s help at the computer with CID helping where she was able since this was a Pie family matter.

The unicorn took her position in the chair while the other Equestrians lied down around her. Moondancer lit her horn and all six of them had their consciousness projected into the simulation.

Once back in Virtual Steelport, the Saint Six headed straight for The Broken Shillelagh.

Coming through on their deal with CID, the robotic orb changed her mind about the date with Past Shaundi in favor of having a murderbot body in the simulation. After they found a murderbot which they lured out by causing mayhem in the simulation, Vinyl disabled it with her electrical powers while Kinzie erased its programming. Once erased, CID transferred her consciousness into the murderbot. To make sure her prior functions were not lost, Vinyl modified the killing machine with the necessary components from the C.I.D.

“After all this, I feel like I could earn that degree in engineering when we get back home to Equus,” Vinyl commented.

“It is about time that you finally decided to do more with your life than lie on the couch and play your gigs,” Octavia quipped.

“I still earn my share of the rent,” Vinyl playfully defended. Octavia smiled and rolled her eyes.

Once everypony and griff were ready, Pinkamena began, “Alright girls, we’re about to break into a prison that Zinyak really doesn’t want us in. Moondancer will explain the situation.”

Moondancer nodded, “Once I start using the cypher to unlock the prison with CID, Zinyak is going to send his army against us to stop us. He may already be sending his troops as we speak.”

“You know me so well, Moondancer,“ Zinyak spoke. “I suppose it’s about time that I crushed your spirits once and for all.”

With that, numerous portals opened up and waves of Zin troops emerged from them.

“Once we start,” Moondancer continued. “Vinyl, Kinize and Matt will need to quickly bypass the additional security into their simulation while the rest of you defend us while we work.”

With the briefing finished, Moondancer and CID began creating the gateway. As expected, the gateway turned red due to the additional security on the simulation they wished to enter. The hackers began putting their skills to full use on the door.

Several minutes passed. While the defenders were holding back the many Zin bearing down on them, there was still no change with the door.

Pinkie began growing frustrated as she saw the door was still not open. “Will they hurry up? The solution is simple, so why haven’t they solved it?”

“I can’t switch over right now, Pinkie. It’s taking all of us to hold them off.”

It only took a few more minutes of fighting before Pinkie’s patience ran out. “I can’t take this anymore!” she yelled.

“What are you planning?” Pinkamena asked.

That was when a light shined from Pinkamena’s barrel. From that light, a pink hoof appeared, one slightly brighter than Pinkamena’s. Another hoof appeared and began pushing against Pinkamena’s body. Pinkie’s head soon appeared as she pushed her way out of Pinkamena’s body. Pinkie soon fell to the floor on her face, now fully separated from Pinkamena.

Everyone spared a moment to glance at what happened. It was then that the same thought was made by everyone who witnessed what happened, “Not gonna ask about that. Not gonna ask about that…”

Aboard the ship, the other Saints were perplexed by what they were seeing among the unconscious ponies. None of them had words to describe what just happened as they witnessed a familiar bright pink pony with a curly hot pink mane and.tail appear next to Pinkamena, unconscious like the rest.

Pierce was the first to say something. “How the hell did she…”

He was interrupted by everyone else in the room saying in unison, “Pierce, if you value your sanity, don’t think about it.”

Pinkie rose to her hooves and headed toward the gateway where she pushed Vinyl aside and solved the encryption on the locked gateway within three seconds. The gateway turned bluish white.

“What? How? That’s impossible! That prison used the best encryption in all of the Zin Empire, so how was it solved in three seconds by a pony of lesser intelligence than her peers? It make’s no sense!” Zinyak ranted.

Nobody was going to tell the alien overlord about Pinkie Logic because it amused them to see Zinyak at a loss about what happened. The Zin forces also stopped attacking while they scratched their heads. The murderbots and C.I.D.s in the area suffered a blue screen error.

The only murderbot that didn’t blue screen was CID who accepted the illogical nature of Pinkie Logic with the other Saints.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Pinkamena ran to the gateway and pulled Pinkie into the door with her.

The inside of the simulation was a slave camp quarry with many guards protecting it.

“So their nightmare is a slave camp?” Pinkie asked.

“Not exactly, but close,” Pinkamena answered. “Our sisters and I hated that our parents were so determined to have at least one of us live out our days at the rock farm to keep the family business going. We each had our own dreams that didn’t involve the farm. Maud was living her’s while Limestone wanted to be a bartender. Marble never really told us her dreams but we’re pretty sure it didn’t involve the rock farm.”

“I know you said none of you wanted to inherit the farm before, but why was it so important to our parents that one of us inherit the rock farm that they risked being hated by their own foals?”

“We asked our parents that question before. Father didn’t know why, he just enjoyed the idea of rock farming so he went with it. Apparently, the reason stemmed from Mother’s side of the family. She didn’t explain it very well, only that it related to one of our ancestors from her side receiving a fortune about one of her descendants born from a rock farm rising to a level of greatness that rivaled the princesses. None of us bought it because they’d have to be an alicorn to be that great. Even then, we’re simple Earth Ponies, anything that grandiose was more likely to happen to a unicorn. Plus that’s a storybook cliche.”

“That doesn’t mean that it won’t happen.”

“So would you throw away your party planning career to run a rock farm?”

Silence was Pinkamena’s response from Pinkie.

“That’s what I thought. Come on, we have to save our sisters.”

As the pink duo was about to head into the quarry, Pinkamena paused as she remembered something.

“I almost forgot, I have to tell you the bad news about us now being separated. I can’t protect you from seeing my violent and gory actions anymore. Even worse is that if you want to survive to see your friends again, I can’t have you being passive. I gave the same speech to Moondancer so I’m sure you already know what I’m telling you.”

Pinkie’s ears drooped as she soon came to the realization that there were consequences to separating from her sister. Her body locked up when she thought about taking the life of another.

Pinkamena noticed the rising panic in her sister but there wasn’t much else she could do for Pinkie now. Unless she had some ability to deal with the Zin without killing them, then the party mare really didn’t have much of a choice.

However, knowing Pinkie, the madmare had a feeling that she might find a way.

“Come on Pinkie, we have to save our sisters.”

Pinkie recovered somewhat and nodded grimly before she followed her sister into danger.

The quarry was at least as bad as Pinkamena expected. Aside from the fact that there were guards all over the area, the guards were also carrying Zin rifles, which was to be expected. The immediate objective that needed to be completed first was to find Maud, Limestone and Marble.

Pinkie managed to mentally bounce back and helped find her sisters. In typical Pinkie fashion, she found them in five seconds. Marble was seen near their parents’ house, Limestone was near the center of the quarry breaking rocks and Maud was seen going into a gem cave.

The situation was delicate, with the trio separated, if the guards discovered intruders, they would shoot the sisters on sight and the pink duo would be back to square one when the simulation reset.

Pinkie and Pinkamena tried the gem cave first since the guards were less likely to notice them.

While there were guards in the cave, Pinkamena quickly slaughtered them before they could raise an alarm. Pinkie moved deeper into the cave to find Maud. Thankfully, there were no more guards deeper in the cave.

Pinkie soon found her sister in the depths of the cave mining gems. In an instant, she was in Maud’s face smiling.

“Hello Pinkie,” Maud said in monotone.

“Hey Maud, we’re here to rescue you and Marble and Limestone.”

“Who else is with you?”

“Just me and Mena, but we’re all we need to save you.”

Pinkie could always tell the subtle changes in Maud’s expression and she could tell that Maud was frowning deeply even if she didn’t show it. “Could you go to sleep for a few minutes? I want to talk to Mena.”

“Anything you want to tell me about you can talk to Pinkie about too. She’s a big filly,” Pinkamena said as she approached.

Maud stared blankly at Pinkamena before she turned to Pinkie again. “You two are separated?”

“Yuppers, it happened less than an hour ago.”

Seeing Pinkie unharmed and still in good spirits was a relief to Maud. The expressionless mare turned her attention to the madmare, “I’m surprised that Pinkie is still happy despite being around you.”

Pinkamena rolled her eyes, “Here we go with the family drama. Just because I’m a rebellious bitch doesn’t mean I don’t love our sister.”

Maud blinked without saying anything for a moment before she spoke again, “That’s surprising, given the fact that you were locked away in Pinkie’s mind for ten years. I would have figured that you hated her for being your oblivious jailer.”

“I’ll admit that I was at first, but the years that I spent with the Saints helped me get over that. I was able to vent my frustrations by taking the lives of some flankhole humans.”

“You’ve been going around killing?”

“Just the ones who have been trying to kill me. Being part of a gang isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.”

“You’ve been exposing Pinkie to violence. Limestone, Marble and I agreed to not expose her to our family’s dark secrets and I would have hoped that you would agree.”

“Would you quit coddling her? She’s an adult like the rest of us. Let her choose her own path.”

“Umm…” Pinkie began but was ignored. However, Pinkie wasn’t going to let that bit play out so she pulled out her party cannon and fired it to get her sisters’ attention. Pinkamena and Maud looked at Pinkie.

“Warden!” Pinkie screamed.

On cue, the hulking form of a Warden entered the chamber. Pinkamena and Maud looked at each other then glowered at the Warden before both mares raced for the beast.

This Warden didn’t have his shields up so it was a simple matter for Maud to run behind the Warden and buck his lower spine with her right forehoof, shattering it. This caused the Warden to fall backward before Pinkamena crushed his face with her Knightmare, shattering the skull and splattering the brain.

With the Warden dealt with, the two older mares looked at each other again. “Save the family drama for later?” Pinkamena asked.

“Agreed. Limestone should be coming in soon, but we will need to move fast to save Marble from our parents once they find out what happened here. Nice cutie mark by the way.”

“I still don’t like how long it took for me to get it.”

Limestone entered the chamber a few minutes later. She was surprised to find Pinkie and Pinkamena in the chamber with Maud. The three discussed the truce with Limestone to make sure she was up to date on the situation.

“So what’s the plan?” Limestone asked.

“The three of you will rescue Marble,” Pinkamena said. “I’m gonna cause mayhem in the quarry as a distraction.”

“Are you nuts? There’s an army of Ponies out there with weird weapons,” Limestone stated.

“Eh. I’ve faced worse,” Pinkamena said nonchalantly.

“It’s true,” Pinkie affirmed. “Mena’s faced down hordes of aliens plenty of times before we found a way to get you three out.”

“Fine, if you plan to go on a killing spree, make sure none of them are left standing,” Limestone said.

Pinkamena smirked, “Just don’t give me a reason to come save your flanks.”

With that, the four Pies ran out of the cave and into the quarry. Pinkamena quickly became the center of attention when she announced her presence by hurling a few grenades around that blew up a few guards. The other guards converged on the madmare who smiled wickedly as she got to work murdering the guards.

Meanwhile, Pinkie, Limestone and Maud snuck to the house to find Marble. Thankfully, Pinkamena’s distraction wasn’t noticed at the house so they had time to save Marble who was just outside the house tending to its appearance. The pony noticed the three nearby and raced toward Pinkie to give her a big hug.

After the sisterly embrace, Limestone spoke up, “Now that we’re together Pinkie, can you tell us what the Tartarus is this place? It obviously isn’t home.”

“Oh, that’s easy, you three are trapped inside a fake reality created by some alien technology belonging to a race of meanie aliens called the Zin who like using these things to psychologically torture their victims with their worst nightmares. Obviously, you, Maud and Marble share the same fear so Zinyak, the leader of the Zin, put you three in the same simulation together. I think Zinyak captured you three because Mena prevented him from capturing his real target, a human named Johnny Gat who is said to be the biggest threat to his empire.”

“Aha! So Pinkamena did have something to do with us being in this situation.”

“She is trying to save us, Limestone,” Maud said.

“Yeah but…” Limestone never finished that sentence as a look from the expressionless pony told her to let the matter go.

“You four are going nowhere,” came a familiar voice from inside the house.

Out of the house came a pair of ponies the Pie sisters knew all too well. Igneous Rock, a dark tan Earth Pony stallion with two tones of gray mane and tail and amber eyes accompanied Cloudy Quartz, a gray Earth Pony mare with grayish green mane and tail and sea green eyes. The two were carrying alien rifles and pointed them at the Pie sisters.

Maud and Limestone stood in front of Pinkie and Marble in an effort to protect them from their parents.

“I kinda wish I had superpowers right now,” Pinkie said.

“Wish granted,” said Vinyl from the simulation’s audio system.

Pinkie suddenly found herself feeling the surge of power that Pinkamena felt before. As was characteristic of ponies who received the superpower package, Pinkie was also equipped with the appendage needed for Telekinesis.

Her appearance also changed as she now wore a yellow undershirt with a blue bowtie under a jacket of light blue that was buttoned up around her barrel. The light blue top hat completed the ensemble that made her look like a circus ringleader.

“What the?! How did you turn into a unicorn, and what’s with the clothes?” Limestone asked.

Pinkie giggled, “It’s part of the simulation superpower package. I’m still an Earth Pony, I just have a horn to use Telekinesis with.”

Hoping not to hurt her parents too badly, she hurled a Blast at them. The effect seemed very odd yet “Pinkie” of her as their parents were turned into chocolate ponies wrapped in foil the same color as the ponies’ color scheme.

“Let’s go find Mena and get out of here,” Pinkie said. The others agreed and ran into the quarry.

The four immediately regretted doing that a little as they spotted a scene of gore as body parts of the guards were scattered all over the area.

Standing in the area was Pinkamena, dressed in a light blue and white dress that was stained in blood and had symbols embroidered into the dress.

“Hmm…” Pinkamena thought to herself out loud. “Not really enjoying the dress, maybe…” With a thought, her dress was altered to look like a dress made of entrails which horrified her sisters before it changed again to take on a crimson version of the previous dress appearance. “Ooh, customizable, I can work with this.”

Pinkamena turned to her sisters who had a mix of expressions that ranged from horrified to angry to...Maud. “Sorry about that last one, I was testing out this new appearance. It’s time we get out of here. Pinkie, care to give them the orientation?”

Pinkie informed Maud, Limestone and Marble about what was about to happen and to be prepared to fight their way to freedom. Pinkamena added that they didn’t need to hold back against the Zin as they were going to be killing aliens anyway.

When Pinkamena told Limestone that she was free to vent her frustrations on the aliens in any way she wanted, the salty mare suddenly became eager to unleash her long pent up rage.

“See you soon,” Pinkamena said as she and Pinkie disappeared which was followed by Maud’s Limestone’s and Marble’s vision going black.

Author's Note

Super Pinkie:
Superpower element: Party
Blast: Turns targets in Blast area into candy.
Telekinesis: Encases target in a telekinetic bouncy ball. Damage caused depends on size of target.
Stomp: Turns area into a trampoline.
Buff: Compels nearby enemies to dance.

Super Pinkamena:
Superpower element: Blood
Blast: Primary target explodes in blood and gore. Secondary targets damaged by flying knives.
Telekinesis: Life stealing. Target explodes upon reaching 0 HP.
Stomp: Impales nearby targets with a various assortment of knives erupting from the ground.
Buff: ??? (Results may vary.)

I haven't planned any powers for Maud, Marble or Limestone so don't expect any loyalty mission for them.

I also wanted to put in a joke about a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker with Pinkamena murdering a mime but I felt that would have been too forced and I couldn't think of a way to put that in where it wouldn't be.